Hi to all,My goal for this year is to improve speed/pace and now that the unpredictable weather is upon us - I will be using the treadmill for some of my mid-week runs , specifically for speed work. I wanted to start with farteks and strides but I don't think these would be the best workouts for the TM.

Any suggestions for the effective speed work on the TM? My TM is very old, basic model ( not programmable)

TM's are great for doing time or distance intervals. Most even have a button which someone showed me this year to set speed intervals for the "ON" and "OFF" paces. Though you can only set 2 (1 on and 1 off) so not so well for fartleks, though you can still do it manually.

Strides are really hard to do well on a TM. They max out at 12mph. Sometimes I just jump on and off for 30s but its not the same. I don't think I can do strides in the gym floor either - too many people to scare off.

I like doing intervals on the TM as it makes the time go by faster. The link Lisa posted above is a good starting point to get some ideas. Personally, I prefer to do time-based rather than distance-based intervals, simply because it's easier for me to schedule a certain amount of time on the TM, rather than trying to figure out how much distance I can cover in the time I have available (not sure if that's clear to you, but it is to me ).

So, if I know I want to run for about 45 minutes, I'll do 5 intervals of 4/2 (i.e., 6 minutes) = 30 minutes, plus 10 mins to warm up and 5 mins to cool down, for a total of 45 minutes.

*The definition of "hard" and "easy" will be based on your current fitness level. Depending on the goal of the workout, you'll either want to increase your pace slightly with each fast interval, or at least hold it steady. Take notes after each workout in terms of whether you felt the time/speed/recovery, etc. felt hard enough, too hard, etc. That way you can adjust for your next workout.

"Maybe I will be my own inspiration." - UltraMonk (Laura)"Everywhere is walking distance if you have enough time." - Steven Wright

La wrote:I like doing intervals on the TM as it makes the time go by faster. The link Lisa posted above is a good starting point to get some ideas. Personally, I prefer to do time-based rather than distance-based intervals, simply because it's easier for me to schedule a certain amount of time on the TM, rather than trying to figure out how much distance I can cover in the time I have available (not sure if that's clear to you, but it is to me ).

So, if I know I want to run for about 45 minutes, I'll do 5 intervals of 4/2 (i.e., 6 minutes) = 30 minutes, plus 10 mins to warm up and 5 mins to cool down, for a total of 45 minutes.

*The definition of "hard" and "easy" will be based on your current fitness level. Depending on the goal of the workout, you'll either want to increase your pace slightly with each fast interval, or at least hold it steady. Take notes after each workout in terms of whether you felt the time/speed/recovery, etc. felt hard enough, too hard, etc. That way you can adjust for your next workout.

Yes - this is perfect for me. Thank you! I prefer to run by time as as it is much easier to follow. I did a similar workout yesterday except it was 5 intervals of 30 sec hard/90 sec recovery...called HIIT workout.My goal is to improve my speed/pace over the winter to run a 5K. I really hate running on the treadmill....

Thank you all...these details are very helpful. I suppose the best workouts for the TM are tempo, intervals, progression runs but not farteks and strides. I've never done consistent speedwork due to chronic injuries but I wonder how long in general it might take to see an improvement in speed? I know everyone is different...

And there's even variation between treadmills (if you're using more than one at the gym).

Depending on how frequently you are running and how often you are doing interval or tempo work, you could start to see an improvement (meaning, your perceived exertion for the same speed will feel lower) in about 10-14 days.

The other things that affect PE are:- how well recovered you are from previous workouts- how well rested you are (i.e., sleep)- how you're feeling in general (health)- hydration level, temperature of the room, etc.

So, with that said, don't freak out if you try to do a workout at a particular speed one week and then are unable to do it at the same (or faster) speed next week. Improvements aren't necessarily linear. I tend to determine my speed/pace for each workout based on what I did last time, and then adjust from there. Sometimes I set the initial speed too low, other times it's too high.

"Maybe I will be my own inspiration." - UltraMonk (Laura)"Everywhere is walking distance if you have enough time." - Steven Wright

I do speed drills as well. start off at 12km for 3 minutes jack up to 15 Km do that for minute and a half ; back to 12 for minute and a half , repeat 3 times then come crank up to 17 for the speed segment and repeat sequence as one minute intervals three times takes about 20 minutes to complete at the end of a work out you finish on the runners high or dead .